How to make your pedals worth every cent

[DoubleBlade]

Okay , I've finally got myself an Epi special II a couple of weeks back. Don't look down on it being the cheapest guitar in the Epi arsenal because I feel that it is a great beginner's guitar and even better than the GIOs and even higher end Epi LPs in terms of the tonal clearity for some stange reason.... :?

So now I'm just working on my chords and scales. Learning everything back from stratch. The thing which I wanna ask about is how do I or we make pedals worth every cent of our money?

I'm pretty sure it's very common for guitarist to go down to a guitar shop test out this pedal and that pedal and go like ,"This pedal rocks big time man!!!!". About 2 months later , you'll see the exact same guitarist posting an advertisement on Luther and SOFT selling away his "awesome pedal" at a fraction of the list price all because he/she finds out that the pedal does not suit their genre of playing....

So basically , how do we make the right decision in determining whether this pedal or that pedal is worth every cent of our money?

 

[17wil]

how's about getting a multi efx?

 

[DoubleBlade]

I'm not really fond of jack of all trades because I already have a rough idea of what kinda tone I wanna be into....

Stand alone pedals for me I guess....

 

[popeye]

So basically , how do we make the right decision in determining whether this pedal or that pedal is worth every cent of our money?

Stop learning new things :lol:

Seriously, your pedal need grows or decrease along with your learning curve and your playing style.

 

[BlackMoo]

Just suck it up, buy a ds-1, practice, when you're good enough to know what you're REALLY after, then choose.

Cos your tonal needs will change as you advance as a player, guarenteed.

 

[brundisium]

just my 0.00002 cent worth

some people buy/sell effect frequently because they are in search of their own holiest "tone". To fully understand how the effect sound like, react with other guitar/amp, sometime it is necessary to go through the buy/sell stage in order to fund other effect.

As for the right/wrong decision, there is really none, imho. It actually involve to many factor as in what guitar/amp is use with the effect, who is the one playing the effect and for what sort of music.

A great effect, used in the wrong way, will turn off majority of the people while a bad/weird sounding effect in the right hand, will make people sit up and listen, in some cases, even push up the resell value of it, in used market. One good example is the dod gonkulator, which, when still in production, is not really a big seller. But when it's out of production and the dude from incubus uses it in some songs, the used price started going up.

Thus i say, any effect, whether it's commonly agreed to be great or lousy, if it doesn't help in you playing/writing music(which is the ultimate point) it's not worth it...right or wrong is subjective and everyone will have their own definition after all.

cheers

 

[theblueark]

What do you mean by worth every cent of your money?

Build cost?
You'll have to build your own pedals or buy second hand if you want to buy a pedal at the build cost.

Making sure the pedal is for you?
If you want to try out pedals for extended periods of times, buying a second hand one is a good idea. Most pedals on the resale market cost around a certain price, so you probably can resell the pedal for the same price you paid. My bassist goes through pedal after pedal every month searching for his perfect tone. He does this without hurting his wallet and sometimes even makes money.

Otherwise, when you know the exact sound you want. And you bring your guitar to the shop. And play through the amp you have. And you hear the tones that have been in your head. And your consciousness goes off into somewhere else and someone has to call your name 5 times before you respond. That's when you have found what you want. Goes the same for buying guitars and amps.

 

[mulyadi]

I've been changing pedals quite often, though not as often as some of the bros here would have had. Well, from my first pedal, a dan electro grilled cheese, to a visual sound jekyll hyde for the distortion which i was lookign for, with several boss pedals, a rat and a you dirty rat in between, i finally switched to a multi-effect unit instead.

well, i love the sound of the jekyll hyde, which i sadly have to part with, coz...it's a bit overkill, and my band plays quite a number of different genres, and i ain't got the dough to get some more pedals, so...the only way to go, go cheap, go multi-effect.

Thing is, there's the love-hate thing going on with me and my pedals. When i hit the sweet spot, there's nothing sweeter and more rewarding, you get something like a 'musical orgasm', but other times, they are just as bad as the turn-off aunties with armpit hair and sleeveless shirts.

when you spend the cash, hard earned, or pouring out of your parent's pocket, you get a satisfaction too, like everytime i get myself a brand new pedal, it's just amazing..that feeling. And when you have to sell it, it kinda brings 'pangs of guilt' there...haha...

my advice: if you're looking for the tone that you want, and you're really particular about it, get single stomp boxes, but if you just want a quick fix, like me...=X...though i'm a self-confessed stomp box afficionando, get a multi-effect unit.

the tonelab se sounds great, so does the ax3000g, and the xt live....but those are way outta my range...so...yeah...gotta do with the dough that i have, and yeah...in a way, there's joy in the multi-effect too...though not as much as tweaking the single knobs on each box...and getting that ooompphhh feeling...

 

[nebo1981]

The best way to get the most out of ur pedal is to keep it ~!

There must have been a reason you bought the pedal in the 1st place ...~
Keep it ... play with it....
you kinda realise ... there's no really bad pedal ...
just whether it's suitable for ur playing style, and whether it's reliable or not ...


even if you get sick of it or dun use it ...
maybe 5 - 10 yrs down the road ... you put it in ur setup ..
suddenly WOW you fall in love with the sound again ... ~

 

[pr0n]

imo the only effect u need to buy is wah. the rest can be achieved by manipulating ur amp settings.

 

[vernplum]

So basically , how do we make the right decision in determining whether this pedal or that pedal is worth every cent of our money?

I've bought and sold quite a lot of gear over the years and a few times, I've looked back and thought "gee, I wish I'd never sold that...". If you get gear that's good, hang on to it unless you can't afford to, and need to sell it to buy something else. You never know when you'll want it again.

 

[vernplum]

imo the only effect u need to buy is wah. the rest can be achieved by manipulating ur amp settings.

...assuming your amp doesn't have built in effects, how would you achieve a delay or chorus effect? Opinion doesn't come into it; some things can't be done without external devices.

 

[popeye]

imo the only effect u need to buy is wah. the rest can be achieved by manipulating ur amp settings.

sir, if you think all amps has built in effect like yours, please... think again.

 

[hellmurderer]

Just suck it up, buy a ds-1, practice, when you're good enough to know what you're REALLY after, then choose.

Cos your tonal needs will change as you advance as a player, guarenteed.

ds-1? Is that a multi efx? And how much does it cost?

 

[Scream_ed]

Just a sidetrack (pls ignore if really out of topic, but keep the flames for your burgers):

Do you think it's weird to hook up other pedals to a multieffects pedal? Or is it actually no big deal? I do that cos it kinda allows me to expand on the palette of sounds, but this set-up might sound pretty oxymoronic. I dunno...

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

ds-1? Is that a multi efx? And how much does it cost?

ds-1 is a BOSS single efx pedal...

its a very popular basic distortion pedal and its relatively cheap...

 

[theblueark]

Just a sidetrack (pls ignore if really out of topic, but keep the flames for your burgers):

Do you think it's weird to hook up other pedals to a multieffects pedal? Or is it actually no big deal? I do that cos it kinda allows me to expand on the palette of sounds, but this set-up might sound pretty oxymoronic. I dunno...

I knew a guy who hooked up two Vox Tonelabs SEs. If it gets you the sound you want, go ahead. Its hell to bring aroud though.

 

[nebo1981]

Just a sidetrack (pls ignore if really out of topic, but keep the flames for your burgers):

Do you think it's weird to hook up other pedals to a multieffects pedal? Or is it actually no big deal? I do that cos it kinda allows me to expand on the palette of sounds, but this set-up might sound pretty oxymoronic. I dunno...

imo: it's ok to run other pedals thru a multifx ...~
especailly since most distortion in multifx dun really sound as good as analog stompboxes.

I gotta admit, digital modulation effect (ie. flanger, phaser...) do sound very good (especially if yours is a good multifx unit).

But when i used to dun my modded DS1 into a zoom 707 (cheap crap unit, so got rid of it), it "digitalised" my stompbox.
But if this doesnt happen to you ... by all means.... go ahead~

 

[nebo1981]

actually ...

i just realised that i used to run the zoom with a preset that had gain...
if i had used a clean channel ... with my ds1 .. it might not have sounded digital at all ...~

lol ~!

 

[Scream_ed]

Oh, mine's a Yamaha Magicstomp, which is pretty small. I use it more for other effects like chorus, pitch shifter and all that, but their distortion sound good too. I agree abt the distortion part. I still prefer the sound of my Boss Turbo Overdrive. But Yamaha effects sound pretty good, not too cold and digital (yeah, I had Zoom 505 too. Really cannot make it...). My fave is to hook the Magicstomp with Boss Digital Delay though. The Boss delay is in a class of its own man...